Gekkou
Hayate and Uzuki Yuugao are my new canon!OTP—ironic, seeing as both
my canon!OTPs are now severed by death. I take this to mean that
manga canon is very cruel to my favorite characters, and that I
should stick with my own. This story, therefore, is based on
backstory developed for Uzuki Yuugao and Gekkou Hayate at Revanche
RPG (in which Hayate is alive! Hurrah!). Hayate's
characterization is based on that developed by the superlative
Nezuko; all praise is to be laid at her feet, and any faults should
be cast at mine.

This fic
is set approximately two years before the start of the series, when
Yuugao is twenty.

-

I need
your grace

to
remind me

to find
my own

– Snow
Patrol, "Chasing Cars"

-

The locker room in the
basement of ANBU HQ was cold, and very dirty. Some unidentifiable
substance crusted one end of the bench straddling the row between two
lines of lockers; the cement floor hadn't been mopped in years.
The handle of locker 301 was slimy beneath Uzuki Yuugao's hesitant
fingertips. She held her breath and eased the handle up.

Of
course it didn't open. Yuugao's lips thinned. She resettled the
bundle of newly issued uniform and armor under her right arm, gripped
the slimy handle harder in her left hand, and wrenched.

The
hinges squealed protest and snapped. Yuugao staggered backward as the
door abruptly came off in her hand. The back of one knee bumped the
bench, and she leapt away from that disgusting support as quickly as
she could. Soap scum slipped beneath her heel. Falling, she slammed
chakra into her feet, securing her footing to the slick floor long
enough to give her natural balance time to recover—

Just as
a broad hand slipped beneath her shoulder blade, and a concerned
voice spoke in her ear. "You all right?"

"Yes, thank
you," Yuugao gritted through clenched teeth. She hadn't been
falling anyway by the time whoever-this-was intruded, and she could
feel the flush of embarrassed anger already heating her cheeks. What
a perfect way to show off to the ANBU veterans what a good
choice they'd made in giving her the mask. And did this man even
realize how rude he was being in acknowledging her slip?

Apparently
not. "I took a tumble here last week," the man said
sympathetically. His hand was still spread on her back, fingers
slightly cupped over her spine, trapping a few strands of her long
hair. "Damn near cracked my head on the bench. Ryoma swears you
could ice-skate if it got just a little colder..."

Yuugao's
lips twitched despite herself, as she thought involuntarily of ANBU,
sleek and deadly in their black clothing and bone-colored armor,
sliding across the floor. She regained control a moment later, and
stepped away. "It would be safer if they cleaned instead," she
said severely, leaning the broken metal door against the rusted row
of the rest of the lockers. The repairs would have to come out of her
pay; at least she'd get a new locker door out of it. Unless they
were as slovenly with repairs as they were with the upkeep of the
rest of this place, which she didn't doubt. Difficult to bear the
thought of changing here—though given what ANBU did on their
missions, perhaps a little grime at home didn't bother them.

It
would bother her, she told herself. No matter how much she
changed in ANBU, that never would.

"You're probably
right," the man behind her agreed. A sandal scuffed, and metal
creaked; she could almost see him leaning against the end-locker,
cocking a heel up. Why didn't he go away? "But nobody
below chuunin's got high enough security clearance to get in here,
and everybody above chuunin's got better things to do."

"They
could hire retired ANBU," she muttered rebelliously, taking the
bundle of uniform and armor from under her arm and inspecting the
inside of her newly opened locker. There was a mess of brown-stained
bandages at the bottom, but otherwise it looked almost safe to touch.
Presumably it would be safe to leave her clothes here while she
changed; none of the lockers actually locked, anyway.

"That's
a thought," he said slowly, as if he were actually thinking about
it. "I'll have to suggest—here, lemme get that."

Before
she could protest he was there again, so fast that she barely
leaned back in time as he ducked into the narrow space between her
body and the open locker. He scooped out the tangle of crusted
bandages with a gloved hand and stood back again, gesturing grandly
with his free hand. "All yours."

He was smiling at her,
and something about that smile caught her attention, turned her head
for just a brief moment. She saw a thin face, almost delicate, with
dark eyes and a straight nose and an easy smile just this side of
gentle teasing. He was a few centimeters taller than she, almost as
slender, with shaggy dark brown hair that fell just past his chin and
a forelock that brushed the bridge of his nose. The scarlet spiral
tattooed high on his left shoulder was a little faded, and his armor
was worn and visibly repaired in a few places, but well cared-for. A
veteran, obviously, and he just had to be handsome as well…

Yuugao was blushing again, and knew it, and couldn't stop
it. It sharpened her tone a little as she looked quickly away. "Thank
you, senpai."

"Hayate," he said. He leaned against the
next locker over, still smiling at her, with the filthy bandages
crumpled within his black-gloved fist. "Gekkou Hayate. We don't
stand much on formality here."

"Hayate-senpai," she
said, carefully. Perhaps he could be informal, with his gentle smile
and his unasked-for help, knowing his place and fitting into it as
comfortably as the thin cloth of his uniform shirt clung to the
hollows of his collarbone...

Yuugao refocused with an effort,
settling at a point over his right shoulder. She could not
afford informality. She was the newbie, the rookie, the kunoichi in
an organization still dominated by men; she would have to prove
herself their equal by being better than any of them, and she wasn't
here to be distracted by smiles or collarbones. She set her
scarlet-painted mask on the highest shelf of the locker, and said,
"I'm Uzuki Yuugao."

She hadn't expected a reaction;
neither her own name nor her family's would ever merit any
attention. What little there was of her father's clan had died even
before he did, back in the mud and fire of the Third Great Ninja War;
she had not even been old enough to remember his face. Her mother's
family had been minor nobility, but they would see her as a bastard
at best, if they'd ever bothered to acknowledge her existence at
all. She wondered, sometimes, what it must feel like to introduce
yourself as Hatake Kakashi, or as Sarutobi Asuma, or even as a Hyuuga
or an Uchiha before their slaughter; what must you feel when people
know your name, know your face, know what to expect from you? Her own
eyes had sought out the katana-hilt protruding over Hayate's left
shoulder when he'd said his name, before she remembered her manners
and looked elsewhere. The Gekkou were Konoha's kenjutsu
specialists; there was no doubt why he was in ANBU.

But
his dark eyes were oddly alight, and his smile had widened, and he
said, "I've been waiting for you."

She forgot she wasn't
looking at him, and stared. "Pardon me?"

The smile slipped
into a grimace. He tucked at his forelock, wincing. "Sorry, that
sounded awfully stupid, didn't it? I mean, they gave me your
dossier yesterday, and I've been waiting for you to show up. Um.
I'm your new squad captain."

Yuugao closed her eyes for a
brief moment and fought, fiercely and successfully, against the urge
to bash her forehead against the locker. Or simply translocate away,
go back to her apartment and her bed, wait to wake up...

"I'm
pleased to meet you, Gekkou-taichou," she said, hoping that didn't
sound as idiotic as she thought it did. Hoping he wasn't already
tallying up her mistakes so far, in neat columns behind those
riveting eyes: clumsy, rude, whining, squeamish,
dull-witted...

But a grin had replaced the grimace. "Not
nearly as pleased as I am to meet you. Shou and Ryoma were making
bets, you know—they're idiots, you'll meet them later—and
they even managed to scare me. That was before I got your dossier,"
he added hastily. "Your official photograph's a good one. I
didn't show the other two—they'd've been fighting to meet you
here, instead."

"I take it I should be grateful for this,"
she said dubiously.

He shrugged, shoving one hand into a
pocket. "They're good guys. Shou's our medic and genjutsu boy;
Ryoma's an all-rounder. I stick to ninjutsu and kenjutsu, so you're
the taijutsu genius, now."

"Not genius, surely," Yuugao
protested, wishing she was already in uniform and could wear the
mask. He was going to think her cheeks were permanently red. Perhaps
she could claim sunburn?

"Your mission record argues
otherwise," he said, but he left it at that, and peered at the
bundle in her arms instead. "You're all outfitted, then? Great.
Get changed, and I can take you to get your tattoo."

He
leaned back against the locker, cocking his heel against the
squeaking metal, and whistled a few bars of a tune she didn't
recognize. Waiting, obviously.

Was this another test?

If so, it was one she wasn't going to fail. She was
shinobi, and he was her squad captain. If they served together, he'd
undoubtedly see her in far more compromising circumstances. She'd
just have to hope the blush stayed in her cheeks...

She set
the neatly folded clothing on the second shelf, grasped the hem of
her shirt in both hands, and peeled it off.

Hayate choked on a
strangled yelp and bolted around the corner.

For a moment,
shirt dangling from her hand, Yuugao stared after him. Then she bit
her lip, kicked off one sandal, stood on it to repeat the process,
and stepped out of her pants as well. Dressing in the skin-tight
black trousers and sleeveless turtle-neck was the work of another
moment. She left the armor and leg-wraps for the time being, fastened
her sandals again, and followed Hayate around the row of lockers.

The dull thudding she'd been hearing for the past few
minutes was his head smacking repeatedly into another locker.
He paused when he heard her footsteps, and rested his forehead
against the locker without looking around. "I am so sorry. I
swear I didn't mean—I didn't even think—"

Yuugao's
lips twitched, and she stepped closer. "It's all right," she
said softly, reaching for his shoulder to turn him towards her. He
came reluctantly, head ducked, almost as if he were afraid to look at
her now. On an impulse she stooped, and saw that his face was redder
than hers had ever been.

Of course, some of that probably came
from repeated blows to the forehead.

Her lips twitched again,
and this time she let them curve into a smile to echo the one he'd
given her. Gentle, teasing, friendly.

I can work
with this man, she thought, and her smile spread a little wider.
I can enjoy working with this man.

"It's all
right, Taichou," she said again. "You'll probably have to
stitch me up on a mission at some point anyway. I'm not offended—if
you're not," she added belatedly. Perhaps that was the problem.
If he was body-shy, he might have been mortally offended by her
immodesty; she might be off his squad before she'd ever really been
on it...

She dropped her hand from his shoulder, backed two
steps away. "I apologize, Taichou; in the future I'll endeavor
to—"

"Hayate," he said firmly, interrupting her. He
looked up, met her eyes; he was smiling again, though the blush still
burned in his cheeks. She blinked, uncertain, and he repeated
himself: "It's just Hayate."